This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

It has been 874 days, or a little more than 2 ½ years, since Bonnie and Bill Rowntree planned the mating of their mare Hold The Starch to Queen’s Plate winner Mike Fox, resulting in a healthy and attractive filly.

That one-year-old thoroughbred will be in the Sept. 8 Canadian Premier Yearling Sale at Woodbine racetrack and, with any luck the filly will bring enough money to carry the Durham, Ont., couple’s business into 2016.

“We have to do well at the sale this year,” Bonnie Rowntree says. “It’s been a tough year, the farm is struggling.”

The yearling sale, essentially the same auction that Northern Dancer went unsold at in 1962, and the Sept. 2 Canadian Millions race night at Woodbine, are the most important days for Ontario breeders this year. The auction is the one payday that breeders depend on each fall.

The Rowntrees’ Willow Ridge Farm has consigned yearlings — their own horses and those for clients — to the annual sale for nine years and have sold many stakes winners and top runners.

Article Continued Below

A lot of careful planning, patience and luck goes into selling a yearling, not to mention quite a few dollars.

“First there is the care and upkeep of the mare and her vet bills, shipping and blacksmith,” Rowntree says. “There is the stud fee for the stallion and the cost to maintain the mare’s pregnancy for 340 days. Then you have to hope everything goes well with the foaling, raise the foal for a year and hope to God at the sale you make a little bit of money.”

Rowntree estimates that if a breeder cannot get a bid of $20,000 for a yearling, they are breaking even or losing money.

The good news is, the average price for a yearling at the 2014 auction rose some 30 per cent to $33,000 after a couple of tumultuous years where no one bought horses because purses dropped when the slots-at-racetracks program was cancelled by the Liberal provincial government.

The breeders were the first, and hardest hit, but many have weathered the storm and there are 290 yearlings catalogued for this year’s sale.

The Canadian Millions night can really help out breeders, and owners too. The six stakes races, worth a total of $1 million in purses, are restricted to sales horses from previous years. The breeder’s award program, in place for most races at Woodbine and partially funded by the province, provides awards to horses who place well in these races.

“The breeder’s awards are the single most important thing to ever happen to us in this province,” Rowntree says. “It has kept people alive in the business.”

The breeders also host an invitation-only party on Millions night, reaching out to random sectors of Ontario in the hopes of getting them interested in horse ownership.

“We are trying to promote the sport, the sale and thoroughbred racing,” says Rowntree, a director of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society that represents Ontario breeders. “We want to show people you don’t need to spend $100,000 on a horse to do well.”

Indeed, the favourite for the Elgin Stakes on Wednesday is Pender Harbour, a $17,000 yearling purchase who has earned nearly $2 million. The Algoma favourite, Brooklynsway, cost just $6,000.

“There are many ways to get involved in racing and I am a big proponent of syndicates,” Rowntree says. “If you have five to 10 people who kick in $3,000 each, you can get started.”

As for the Rowntrees, they are eager to see how their yearlings, including the beautiful Mike Fox filly, sell on Sept. 8.

“She has perfect X-rays, a perfect throat (airway). We just have to keep our fingers crossed.”

Delivered dailyThe Morning Headlines Newsletter

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com